Ibn ʿAqīl said: “He was a lively shaykh, sharp-witted, eloquent in expression, a master memorizer, pious yet headstrong. We compared notes together, and I found him filled to the brim with learning and retention.” (1)

I say: He died in Dhū al-Ḥijjah, 512 AH, at about ninety years of age.

Al-Salafī said: “He was regarded as an authority in kalām. He told me, ‘I have been studying kalām since the year 443.’ Strife arose between him and the Ḥanbalīs, and he suffered extreme persecution. I asked him about the question of istiwāʾ, and he replied, ‘One of the two views attributed to al-Ashʿarī is to leave the verse as it has come, without interpreting it.’ ”

Aḥmad ibn Shāfiʿ reported that Ibn Nāṣir and others said: “The associates of the Qayrawānī testified that in most circumstances he neither prayed nor performed ghusl from janābah (major ritual impurity). He was accused of immoral conduct with beardless youths, and the charge became well known. He also claimed to have recited the Qur’an to Ibn Nafīs.”

I say: That is biased talk.